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Underwater Scent Detection

So, the other day I was out the back hanging washing when I heard Luke blowing bubbles in his clamshell pool with his nose. I turned around and watched him for a bit to see what he was doing. He stood front legs in the water, back legs out, sniffing around with his muzzle underwater, blowing bubbles, pulling back out to clear his nose every now and again before going back under. He'd then pull his head out and chew on something before going back for more.

I couldn't think why he was doing this and then I remembered I had scattered (threw everywhere in a rush) some dry food around the yard earlier in the day and remember some had gone into the water. Luke was sticking his nose under, hunting out the pieces picking them out, eating them, then returning to find more.

Has anyone else's dog done this? I know dogs are good with their noses...but underwater? As far as I could tell, he wasn't finding them with his eyes as they were above the water.

That would have been cool to watch but I'm not to sure he's sniffing for a scent.......The reason been that he would have been taking in water threw his nose. The bubbles would only happen on the exhale.
Unless the water was extremely dirty i think he would still be able to see them above the water.....but the pieces would have been in a slightly diffrent spot to where he saw them due to water refraction.
Just my thoughts....

Last edited by Sean; 09-16-2012 at 03:10 PM.
Reason: There's no such word as refrefraction. lol.

That would have been cool to watch but I'm not to sure he's sniffing for a scent.......The reason been that he would have been taking in water threw his nose. The bubbles would only happen on the exhale.
Unless the water was extremely dirty i think he would still be able to see them above the water.....but the pieces would have been in a slightly diffrent spot to where he saw them due to water refrefraction.
Just my thoughts....

Dogs can not smell in water because they can not inhale water. However, they can smell scents from objects beneath the surface whilst above the water, there have been cases of sniffer dogs being used to find dead bodies under water in boats by the smell that reaches the surface.

I was a little confused because there were moments where he was coming back up and sneezing to clear his nose...

I wondered if somehow he was allowing the water to enter his nose but not go past a certain point to prevent inhalation.

I also didn't understand how he would've used his eyes to find them as he wasn't looking above the surface at all, just constantly moving around with his nose underwater.

Perhaps he hung around the surface smelling and when he caught a whiff, he dunked himself to find the piece?

If it happens again I'll have to record it and post.

He has a great nose on him. I used to take him to a local enclosed oval to meet with other dogs and have a play every now and then. He can jump the fence but he generally wouldn't...unless it was Monday. I'd get distracted for a second and he'd casually pop over the fence and jog away 200m or so to where the playground and barbecue area was. They'd always have family barbecues over the weekend and he'd sniff it out on the Monday. After realising this, if I ever want to take him there, I only will if it's not a Monday...or Tuesday just in case the bins haven't been emptied yet. Cheeky boy.

lol if you have a mad ball drive dog tha loves to jump in the horse tub lots of fun there put the ball in as thay jump in you grap the ball and now whach you dog trying to find the ball splasing all over ther place diging like mad to move the water and you laughing yes im evil lol

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Frosty will stick her whole head under water and blow bubbles - has done it since very small. Usually when she wants something off the bottom - and often she gets it. Sadly. It's usually some stinky dead sea creature I threw back, hoping she'd quit rolling in it or eating it. Sometimes she will use her paws to locate the object or drag it to shallower water. She doesn't like to put her ears under if she doesn't have to - but she will if she wants the whatever bad enough.

Not sure about the actual inhaling - I think a dog would drown doing that.